


Hush Little Baby

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: The Three Lives of Kurosaki Ruri [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, Speculation, sibling bonds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:33:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9326987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Changeling. Demon. Sister. Just what is Kurosaki Ruri?





	

_Hush, little baby, don't say a word,_  
_Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird._  
_And if that mockingbird don't sing,_  
_Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring..._

* * *

 

The day that Shun found out he was going to have a baby sister was the happiest day of his life that he could remember (not that he could remember much at three years old). But for a while, it all went downhill from there. In fact it seemed like there wasn’t going to be a baby. The baby that was growing in mama’s belly was too tiny, too weak, the doctors said.

Mama had to spend a lot of time in bed, and dad said Shun had to be quiet and nice, because anything too loud or too bad could hurt mama and the baby. Shun spent a lot of time lying next to mama, trying to read to her (mostly he made up stories) and coloring pictures for her. When mama slept Shun would lay his head over the growing bump of her belly and listen to the baby’s heartbeat. Sometimes Shun could feel his baby sister move, and he would whisper to her that he would be the best big brother ever, so she had to try to be strong.

One night dad shouted at mama, calling her “paranoid.” Mama screamed back that they weren’t just dreams she was having, they were “visions,” and they told her that her baby was going to die. They stopped yelling at each other when Shun ran into their room crying.

“Is the baby really going to die?” He asked, sobbing. Mama cried too, and dad held both of them and said nothing bad would happen if they thought happy thoughts. Mama and dad didn’t fight again after that.

 

Even after the baby was born, she spent a lot of time in the hospital. Shun stayed with his grandma and grandpa, and mama and dad stayed with the baby. They didn’t even name her, because they “didn’t know if she would make it,” as Shun overheard his grandma saying. But after a week, Shun finally got to go to the hospital, and he got to look through a window and meet his baby sister.

“She’s coming home tomorrow,” Mama said as she cradled Shun in her arms, like he was the baby.

“Did you name her?” Shun asked.

“Her name is Ruri,” Mama said. “Kurosaki Ruri.”

When Ruri came home, she slept a lot. Mama said she wasn’t completely safe yet, that they had to be careful around her. She slept on the floor in Ruri’s room, and stood over her while she slept, and if mama couldn’t be in the room with her, she had the baby monitor pressed against her ear, listening to every breath the baby took. Shun worried about his mama, she looked tired and scared, and it made Shun scared to look at her.

But weeks went by, and Ruri seemed to be okay. She opened her eyes, she smiled, and whenever Shun put his finger in her tiny palm, she held on tight like she didn’t want to let go. Mama seemed to get better, she stopped sleeping in Ruri’s room and watching her when she slept, but she still kept the monitor with her all the time.

 

One night when Shun and his parents were eating dinner, and mama had the baby monitor on the table, something happened. Ruri took a deep breath, and she didn’t let it out.

Mama grabbed the baby monitor and pressed it to her ear, and her face turned white. She stood up and screamed, “CALL THE HOSPITAL!”

Dad tried to tell her to calm down, but she ran to Ruri’s room.

“SHE’S NOT BREATHING!” Mama shouted.

Dad called the hospital. Shun hid under the table and covered his ears as his mama screamed and cried. When the ambulance came and people ran into the house, Shun darted into the back of the ambulance and hid. A few minutes later the ambulance people came back, and they had Ruri in their arms. She had a mask over her face and the people were all shouting at each other. Mama jumped into the back of the ambulance, and when the doors shut Shun came out of his hiding spot and ran to his mama. If any of the other people noticed Shun, they didn’t say anything.

At the hospital, mama carried Shun inside, and when a nurse grabbed her arm she screamed that she needed to be with her daughter. Shun and mama followed Ruri and the doctors into a room and the doctors kept shouting at each other, shouting about what Ruri needed. Shun was scared for his baby sister—she was so tiny, and the doctors were so big and so fast. What if they hurt her by accident?

After a few minutes, everybody stopped talking. It was so quiet, Shun could hear his heartbeat in his ears. Then he heard a tiny breath, and Ruri began crying.

The doctors started laughing and clapping. Mama put Shun down, she ran to Ruri and scooped her up. She sat down, staring at Ruri’s face, and she started to cry.

Shun went to his mama’s side and looked down at Ruri. She was still wearing a mask, and it covered a lot of her face, but it didn’t cover her eyes. Shun looked at Ruri’s eyes, and he got cold all over.

Shun tugged on his mother’s sleeve. “Mama, that’s not my baby sister.”

The room got quiet all over again. The doctors stared at Shun, and Shun stared at his mama. When she didn’t look at him, Shun began to panic.

“Mama!” Shun cried, “That’s not Ruri! What did they do to her?”

Shun dad came running into the room. “What happened?” He shouted.

Shun shook his mother’s arm and cried, “Mama, mama, where’s Ruri?”

Mama finally spoke. “Don’t be silly, Shun,” she said. She touched the baby’s cheek. “Of course this is Ruri.”

But Shun could tell she was lying. The doctors started talking to dad, and to mama, and Shun kept crying, but everyone ignored him. Nobody believed Shun, but he knew he was right—something had happened to his baby sister.

 

As the days went on and the baby came home again, Shun was more and more convinced that he was right. His baby sister may have been getting better but now she was suddenly even stronger and healthier than she had been. She made noise all the time, she moved and wriggled, and she ate and ate and ate. Dad was so happy, he said it was a miracle.

Mama pretended she was happy, but when dad wasn’t around she didn’t pay attention to Ruri at all. She stopped carrying the baby monitor, when Ruri cried she didn’t pick her up, she didn’t even feed Ruri when dad wasn’t around. She made up bottles and left them out on the counter, then she watched TV or went outside while Ruri cried. When Shun got tired of listening to her cry, he would go into Ruri’s room and give her the bottle. He held it for her, but he didn’t hold Ruri.

This went on for a long time, until one day Shun let Ruri cry for a long, long time. Mama stayed outside, and Shun played with his toys. He wondered what would happen if he let Ruri cry until dad got home. He wondered if it would bring his real baby sister back.

But the crying got scary. Ruri sounded scared, and it made Shun scared, so he grabbed her bottle and ran to her room. He tried to give Ruri the bottle, but she wouldn’t take it. She just kept crying and crying, and Shun started to cry, too. He pushed a chair next to the crib and climbed up into it, and he picked Ruri up and hugged her.

Shun had never held a baby before. When she’d been sick, his mama had said it was too dangerous, and since she changed at the hospital he had been too scared of her to touch her. But Ruri didn’t seem scary to him anymore, she seemed scared herself. Shun held her and he rocked back and forth, and he sang to her.

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word…”

When Ruri stopped crying, Shun gave her the bottle. She sucked it down, and she looked up at Shun and never took her eyes off of him. Shun stared at her right back, and even when Ruri finished the bottle the two of them stared at each other.

Shun thought for a long time. Deep down he knew he was right—this wasn’t his baby, the baby that he saw for the first time behind the glass in the hospital. He knew it because of her eyes. They were the same shape and color they had been on that first day, but the look in them was different, somehow. Shun didn’t know how it was possible, that this baby could have the same face and body and everything, but be different at the same time. But whoever she was, she was still a baby, and she needed someone to love her. Dad wasn’t home enough and mama couldn’t do it, so Shun decided that he would love her.

“I’m your big brother Shun,” he whispered to the baby. “I’m going to love you.”

 

As the years went on, Shun’s family slowly fell apart. Mama got quieter and colder. She spent a lot of time out of the house, and Shun spent all of his time with Ruri. He brought her with him on his first day of school, and dad had to come take Ruri home, but Shun wouldn’t let him. Dad screamed at Shun, then at mama, and Ruri cried. The next day mama was gone, and she never came back.

Dad worked a lot and hired babysitters for Shun and Ruri. When they got older dad sent them to the Spade branch of Heartland Academy, which was a good school but far from home. A lot of kids lived at the school, but they were different. They all missed their moms and dads, but Ruri and Shun didn’t, because in a way they had already lived a long time without their mom and dad. When parents day came and Ruri and Shun didn’t get a visit, the kids felt sad for them.

“It’s okay,” Ruri said proudly, “I only need Shun to be happy.”

Shun was proud, because he loved Ruri a lot and he knew she loved him. It had been a long time since he felt like she was a stranger, and imposter in his sister’s body, but he never forgot that feeling. As he got older Shun would have times when he felt guilty for ever having felt that way. Of course Ruri was his baby sister, she had never been anyone else but Kurosaki Ruri.

 

 

Shun stands across from Ruri, feeling like he might as well be on the other side of the world instead of the other side of the field. He doesn’t know what’s causing her to be like this, but he has only to look into her eyes to know that she’s not his sister right now.

He remembers, dimly, sitting in the living room and listening to his mother shouting at Ruri while she cried.

“Demon child! Changeling! Witch! Get out of my baby’s body!”

His mother had been right—it wasn’t her baby. Somehow the baby she had given birth to had been switched for this piece of Ray’s soul. His mother hadn’t been crazy, she’d been grieving.

But Shun made a vow to love Ruri, and he still does love her. She is his little sister, and he’s going to save her, even if he loses himself in the process. Right now he’s not facing Ruri, he’s facing a monster that wears her face.

The thing in Ruri’s head makes her smirk and say something cruel. Shun disregards it.

 _‘Hang on Ruri,’_ he thinks as he gets to his feet, _‘I’m coming for you.’_

**Author's Note:**

> I've just always found it interesting that Ruri is the only counterpart not from standard to have a last name, and the only one to have a sibling, implying (though they're never mentioned) that she must have had parents she was born to.
> 
> EDIT: I realize this doesn't mention how Ruri would have gotten her bracelet. OOPS. Let's just say she found it somewhere when she got older.


End file.
